The greatest invention

PHILOSOPHY
Angus Skinner wonders why it is
so rarely recognised

Pete Seeger...live and let live

What was the greatest invention of the 20th century? The internet? Good guess – certainly a strong contender since it now supports all business, commerce, academic, public and private life – but not what I have in mind. Einstein's theory of relativity and all that has flown from it? Radio and telephone technology? Marie Curie and the study of radioactivity? All good contenders – but again not what I have in mind. What I have in mind is rarely applauded yet it is a great achievement. It is rarely acclaimed yet it is hugely enjoyable, especially as compared with the alternative. Old age for the many not the few (at least in developed countries) is the great creation of the 20th century during which 30 years was added to average life expectancy. This is truly cause for celebration for our society and for each of us who are lucky enough to enjoy it.
     Why is it rarely celebrated? Of course for each of us it comes with added aches and pains, some diminution in our functioning, some limits to how much and how well we can savour life. The loss of good sight is pervasive and vastly underestimated in its effects – falls have fearful effects and of course it is so easy to trip over something you cannot see.
     There is an assumption in much of the media and across most professions that older people tend to interact less, to be more prone to depression, to withdraw from rather than engage with life. The evidence is quite to the contrary. Older people are less likely to be clinically depressed than younger and middle-aged people. Happiness is U-shaped over life, as Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick, and others have shown. So for most of us we are happiest in our childhoods, reach the nadir of our doldrums around our forties (all that stress I guess) and then surprisingly and wonderfully recover proportion and achieve happiness that may not quite reach childhood levels but comes pretty close.
     Grumpiness is now often associated with old age, and not just in sit-coms. But the research evidence points rather to older people simply 'pruning' their interactions, of concentrating on those who are important to them, mainly their family. When they say 'I don't have time for those people', they don't mean time today – they mean time in life. We do lose some inhibitions, some politeness that we no longer feel necessary. Politeness is a great Scottish Enlightenment word with French associations. It is the polishing by rubbing together of urban life. Pete Seeger (aged 90) in his talks around Obama's inauguration refers to this learning from city life as the hope for the world, learning to live and argue without killing each other.
     And of course cultures vary. Respect can also be U-shaped – time and respect for children and for older people being high. This seems to be the case in Japan and to a lesser extent in France. While for many decades we had 'old people's week', the French had a week celebrating 'the age of flamboyance'. Let's build a culture of U-shaped respect. Jenny Joseph was barely 30 years old when she wrote the nation's favourite poem, planning the flamboyance of her own old age, ending 'When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple'.
     Wisdom we expect of old age, expertise in the fundamentals of human life. But flamboyance? Most early research on positive ageing focused on 'adding years to life' and then evolved to focus on quality, on the avoidance of disease, engagement with others and keeping active, intellectually and physically. After 40 years of leading the largest Harvard study, George Vaillant simplifies successful ageing as joy, love and learning.
     I am up for that.
     What's more I think it should underline and permeate all our public services. Moving from the deficit to the positive will not be easy. But we can.